Nearly 10 percent of foreign students studying in Korea were found to be in the country illegally, a lawmaker’s report showed Thursday.

According to Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon who obtained the Justice Ministry’s data, 8.1 percent of over 86,000 foreign students here stayed here illegally last year. Of them, 651 were studying in Korea’s top 28 universities.

He also accused universities of recklessly recruiting foreign students for financial gain, and argued that they provided insufficient supervision after the foreign students enrolled, citing the case of one private university in Gyeonggi Province, at which overseas enrollment rose 350 percent last year.

“The Education Ministry is only focusing on attracting foreign students when it does not meticulously manage and monitor expat students,” Kim said.

(rene@heraldcorp.com)